North Lenoir sweeps Kinston, breaks 21-year losing streak

After twenty-one years of frustration that Boston Red Sox fans could relate to, the North Lenoir boys basketball team exacted revenge on in-county rival Kinston.

In fact, the Hawks won both ends of the doubleheader.Wayne Floyd's Hawk girls bested the Lady Vikings 66-47, while Paul Dunn's boys won the nightcap 75-48.

Both North Lenoir teams remain undefeated at 3-0. The Kinston girls slate falls to .500 at 1-1, while Coach Wells Gulledge's Viking boys drop to 2-1.

The heated rivalry game drew so many fans that Wooten Gym was full at 5 p.m., an hour before the girlsd game was scheduled to start. Lenoir County sheriff's deputies were forced to turn hundreds of people away due to fire regulations.

The girls game followed Noerth Lenoir's uusual game plan -- defense. The Lady Hawks created 37 turnovers and improved under both boards, outrebounding their guests 30-25. Offensively, Katie Maloney got things rolling in the first quarter, scoring seven points. In the second she was joined by Shannon Plymouth and Cheree Lynch, as the trio outscored the Lady Vikings 23-12 and took a 34-20 lead to the locker room at the half.

Kinston had trouble coping with North Lenoir's tenacity. The Vikings did not get a shot off until 3:23 of the first period. In addition, they turned the ball over on their first five possessions and put their hosts into the bonus free-throw situation at the :35 mark of the opening quarter.

Although Krystal Fuller and Demicik Ma Mhan spent most of the game on the bench in foul trouble, the Kinston offense finally got rolling late in the game. Courtney Smith's two three-pointers and Phylicea Dunn's basket cut the Hawk lead to 52-45 with three minutes left in the game.

Baskets by Plymouth, Maloney, and Lashura Spruill led to a 10-0 run that put the game back out of reach. Plymouth was high scorer on the night with 38 points. Smith had 18 for the losers.

"We played well at times," said Floyd. "They were much quicker than we were. We did not do a good job running our offense."

For the boys, Kinston's sole lead was K K Sherrod's opening layup. Consecutive baskets by North Lenoir's Emmanuel Rosher, Justin Dunn, and Antwan Wiggins followed and made it 8-2. Kinston could not get their offense set, taking very few shots. Midway through the second quarter, they cut the deficit to six at 22-16.

That was as close as they got.

As in the girls game, the Hawks controlled the boards. Omar Jones and Antwan Wiggins dominated the glass and combined with Rosher to block numerous shots.

The Hawks' starting five all finished in double figures. Dunn led the way with 22. He was followed by Wiggins with 17, Adrian Brewer with 13, Jones with 11 and Rosher with 10.

"Personally and professionally, this was a big win," said coach Paul Dunn. "The streak is now over. How ironic it was for our 21 (Justin Dunn) to lead the way to end their 21 game streak."

"We practice the fundamentals over and over again in practice. What you saw tonight was everyone stepping up and putting things action. Hard work pays off. I see a lot of success coming our way."

Tuesday's game will havwe the East Duplin girls only coming to North Lenoir. The boys game was scxratched becasue East Duplin is still in the football playoffs and are short of players.